Although such procedures provided great flexibility to the individuals who had certain needs, practically a wide spectrum of choices from the faculty and students had posed numerous challenges for the department. Under the supervision of university guidelines in AY 2020-2021, alternative work arrangements (AWA) were adopted, faculty and students therefore had opportunities to make a choice on learning formats and on grading options. The assistant chair, course coordinators, staff, and the chair had made a great commitment to communicating with upper-level administrators, faculty, and students to put the students in classrooms for meeting the requirements of the social distance restriction. In the hybrid teaching of math classes, we had ensured each instructor met students in the classroom at least one time weekly. To effectively teach math courses, our department worked together to manage hybrid teaching in 10-level math classes. The hybrid teaching involves in-person components. To achieve this goal, the teaching format was redesigned as three types in AY 2020-2021: asynchronous online, synchronous remote, and hybrid teaching. Although there have been many difficulties under the pandemic time, the university has placed the priority into our missions: safety and well-being of faculty, staff, and students.

Due to the pandemic of COVID-19, the past one and a half years have been full of hardships, distance, and uncertainty.